Night of Discovery: Brownsville ISD showcases its programs

Besteiro Middle School on Wednesday welcomed elementary school students and their parents for a Night of Discovery during which Brownsville ISD showcased its programs.

“The whole idea is we invite elementary school students to discover the great programming we have. It’s to motivate the students so that when they finish fifth grade to go ahead and enroll in one of our middle schools,” Superintendent Jesus H. Chavez said as the Night of Discovery unfolded at Besteiro Middle School in Southmost.

“One of the things that I think a lot of parents and students don’t understand is the richness of the programming that we have, not only curricular programs like band and choir and athletics. We also have a lot of extra-curricular, so a lot of enrichment that our schools do after school,” Chavez said in a quieter hallway outside the noisy Besteiro gym.

Inside, a steady progression of cheer squads and athletic teams and coaches from nearby Aiken Elementary and other Besteiro feeder schools led cheers and raised the crowd’s enthusiasm

Representatives from BISD high schools lined the foyer outside, providing information about programs available to the students once they get beyond middle school.

“So really, for us, it’s to promote the great programs we have in Brownsville ISD, that we are, literally, the best choice,” Chavez said.

The parking lot had no empty spaces. Teresa Nunez, the Besteiro principal, was overjoyed.

“Look at the crowd. Look at the amazing programs that the kids are performing. Why? Because they’re excited to come to Besteiro,” she said.

Kimberly Galvan, an Aiken third grader, her fourth grade sister Lizet, and their mother Angie, were among the event’s participants. Both girls love sports, are members of Aiken’s flag football team, also play volleyball and soccer, and are good at academics, their mother said.

“We’re super excited to be back at Aiken after a short change of address,” she said.

Ricardo Xavier Samano, a coach at Aiken, fourth grade student Saiah Samano, and his mother Deborah Samano, a PE aide, also expressed excitement about Besteiro and its programs.

Getting students back from, or not losing them, to the charter schools has long been an issue for BISD.

Chavez said no one alone was responsible for starting Night of Discovery a year ago, but that Rose Longoria supervises the middle schools and he gave her a lot of credit.

“Usually at this time of year we start getting some students from charter schools who maybe it wasn’t what they thought. We welcome everyone with open arms. We do get a great number of students from fifth grade. Some of them do go to charter schools. I don’t have anything against charter schools. All I’m saying is we have great programming right here at Brownsville ISD,” he said.

“I always tell people there’s three things that make a great school district: academics, the fine arts and athletics. With us, the fine arts start in elementary. We’ve got cheer. We’ve got ballroom dancing in our district. We’ve got the drill teams that exist at the junior high level and also at the high school level when they get there,” Chavez said.

“Fine arts is very important. We’ve not only got the visual arts, we’ve got the performing arts. In high school we’ve got the one-act play competition. Last year, Veterans actually went all the way to state. And so, we have very rich programming at the middle school level, not only in fine arts but also in the athletic teams. We compete really, really well in a lot of different sports,” he added.

Chavez mentioned the championship game coming up between Veterans Memorial and Los Fresnos, as well as swimming competition that takes place throughout the year at the Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for clarity.